Donut King, Snellville GA

Donut King is a Mom and Pop donut shop near the corner of 78 and Scenic Highway (124), just north of 78, with enough of a following to drift into Snellville’s top 10 at times. It has early bird hours, opening at 5:30 am and closing at 1 pm. This is why we hadn’t visited until recently, as my wife is an afternoon donut buyer, eating them the next day for breakfast.

The look outside is spartan.

The look inside is spartan as well, with a couple tables, some stand up refrigerators with drinks, a display cabinet for the donuts, and the Donut King and Queen. This day, the Queen seemed more in charge than his Highness, who was largely in the back cooking food. I ordered two cream filled donuts, two lemon and two strawberry filled donuts.

They also had pigs in a blanket, or PIBs.

The PIBs were bits of sausage in a very soft bread, and they didn’t last. The cream filled turned out to have a white cream, as opposed to a yellow “custard” filling. So the offerings are pretty spartan as well. But it’s open before the sun comes up, and the crowds lined up to get a couple donuts with coffee, or perhaps orange juice, don’t seem to be going away.

Verdict: Mom n’ Pop donut shop. Decent product. Recommended.

Donut King
2250 Scenic Highway
Snellville, GA 30078-6152
(770) 978-8069

 

Henry’s Louisiana Grill, Acworth GA

I’ve been ill for at least two weeks, cooped up at home. The symptoms have begun to ease up, and so I had the itch to try a place I normally couldn’t get to. John Bickford and Malika Harricharan have both been to Henry’s Louisiana Grill and thought highly of this eatery (see reviews here and here). I grew up partly in Louisiana. Some of my youth and almost all of my teens years were spent there, and there are few things I like as much as a simple crawfish étouffeé. So, time to crawl for some Louisiana food, and check out Henry’s.

To note, in Louisiana, places like Baton Rouge and New Orleans are not really Cajun country. New Orleans is Creole land, the place where Cajun and European and African influences mixed and created a sophisticated urban cuisine. Cajun country is more out in the swamps, in places with names like Breaux Bridge, but largely south of I-10, east of Lake Charles, and west of the Mississippi River. It’s a rural cuisine, simpler and more “whole pig” honest. It’s also rich and spicy, and although rich foods do not scare Atlantans, spicy foods do. To my tastes, about half of the restaurants in Atlanta that call themselves Creole or Cajun are whole “I can’t talk about them because they’re so bad” busts, largely over inadequate spicing.

It’s a bit of a drive to get to Henry’s. Head north on I-75 about 15 miles past the intersection of 75 and 285. Exit the interstate you get to exit 277. At the intersection, head left. Stick on this road until you reach Main Street. Turn right. Eventually, you’ll see what looks like a renovated strip of buildings on the left, and Henry’s will be among those.

Ambience – It’s one thing to buy Mardi Gras masks and party beads to decorate a place. It’s yet another to know enough of the history of Louisiana sports to understand Billy Cannon’s place in college football. One of his jerseys is there, along with newspaper articles of the LSU Sugar Bowl win over Oklahoma. And yes, there are posters and New Orleans memorabilia, and some nice jazz that flows from all the speakers. Waiters dress in black tops and pants, sometimes with white undershirts. I think they look elegant, myself. I see a lot of tag team waiter work. About three people helped me at my table at one time or another, from the bartender on down.

On the tables there are plenty of hot sauces, at least two from New Iberia, the hot sauce capital of Louisiana.

Freebies

Bread and cornbread – Cornbread to be preferred. There is a hint of spice in their yellow cornbread, enough that I asked for a refill.

Appetizers

left: red beans and rice, front: shrimp creole, right: gumbo.

Red Beans and Rice – Spot on for the most part. Sausage used compliments the beans, decent spicing. I can understand why, after letting this sit on my tongue, why John Bickford comes back to this dish again and again.

Gumbo – Not sure I actually had the gumbo, as there really was no liquid to speak of and no okra either. A lot of rice, chicken, and sausage and perhaps some beans. But the flavor wasn’t the same as the red beans and rice. A good dish, but not a gumbo as I know and remember gumbos.

Creole – Best of the appetizers, a nice tomato flavor, good tasting shrimp and decent spicing. This probably would be an entrée choice for me next time.

Entrée

Étouffeé – A hole in the spicing, somehow. Lacked a certain richness. It could be the seasoning, it could be a lack of crawfish fat, but in part was surely a lack of coordinated heat. In this kind of cooking, you really want a cornucopia of peppers in the dish, and not too much of any one of them. Heat should flow over the tongue from the back of the mouth to the tip, and there should be a lingering aftertaste, more black pepper sizzle than cayenne fire. You can get that if you spice the dish yourself, but that isn’t the point when you go to a Louisiana themed restaurant.  I did a brief review of spicing a Cajun dish. This dish isn’t a fail but neither is it a success.

Dessert

Delicious

Bread Pudding – Some sweetness and hints of cinnamon, raisins used to good effect, a dish that was quite tasty and one I usually dislike.

Overall, this is a place with hits and misses. I wish I had read Malika’s review more thoroughly, as the Ooh La La appears to be Henry’s signature dish. It just doesn’t sound Creole or Cajun to me, even if it’s good, and the lack of heat puts it outside of my largest interests. Nevertheless, this place has more hits than misses and with a little more courage in their spicing, they could become a lot more consistent. Consequently, I recommend the place.

Henry’s Louisiana Grill
4835 North Main Street, Suite 100
Acworth, GA 30101
(770) 966-1515

 

Panera Bread, Snellville GA

My first exposure to Panera Bread (mine was called Saint Louis Bread Company back in the day) was a store that opened one block away from my apartment when I was living near Euclid in downtown Saint Louis (someday I really need to write about the Euclid district of Saint Louis in the early 1990s, but not now). It was a marvel, serving pricey but quality breads and sweetbreads at breakfast and lunch. These days the names have changed, they have added soups and sandwiches and they have local competitors, the Atlanta Bread company chain.

This store is nicely and centrally located, has indoor and outdoor seating, is squeaky clean, and has even added to the sweets and breads from the time I first encountered this chain. I really wasn’t expecting the store to be open, and was just getting out to take pictures of the construction. But instead, what I found was a restaurant that is fully open and functional.

Inside, there already is a line and a bit of a crowd. People have found this location. It’s in the same general shopping area as Target, located where Scenic Highway and Ronald Reagan meet. But it’s in the same bit of strip mall as Sakegura Japanese, so if you don’t see it immediately, look around.

To thoroughly review Panera would take multiple visits. I can say that over the years I’ve had their soups, their sandwiches, their salads. But I like their breads and sweetbreads the best. The sandwiches I’ve always found to be pricey, and their best breads have prices that resemble those at Gourmandises.  But it’s a welcome addition to the neighborhood. I’ve thought Paneras to be a “best of breed” chain, and having one in the area makes a trip to, say, Alons to get breads less of an issue.

Walnut muffins, pumpkin muffins, and sourdough rolls from Paneras.

Verdict: Excellent bread and sandwich shop. Welcome in Snellville. Very Highly Recommended.

Panera Bread
1905 Scenic Highway
Snellville, GA 30078
(770) 982-3055

 

Krispy Kreme, Lilburn GA

Krispy Kreme has a following so devoted I’ve seen ministers use tones of voice towards this chain normally reserved for wives and girlfriends. In my opinion it is really at its sugary best when their donuts are right off the machines. A dozen hot glazed and a pint of cold soda or lemonade is a classic almost anywhere.

The closest Krispy Kreme to Snellville is probably the Lilburn location on Highway 78. It’s just south of the Killian Hills Intersection, in the same general area as Home Depot and across the street from Fisherman’s Catch. It’s a small store, and has all the basics. My wife has been buying her donuts there for years now.

In filled donuts I prefer a Bavarian cream (Krispy Kreme calls these “custard filled”, and they have chocolate on the exterior). My wife likes lemon filled and my daughter sticks to raspberry filled donuts. We got some pumpkin flavored donuts with this batch, but really we can’t tell them apart from Krispy Kreme’s  glazed sour cream donuts.

Verdict: Sugary goodness for all ages. Highly recommended.

Krispy Kreme
4129 Stone Mountain Freeway (Highway 78)
Lilburn GA 30047
(770) 985-2810

 

Sakegura Japanese and Yakiniku Japanese Steakhouse, Snellville GA

I will begin this review with an explanation and an apology. I wrote an article talking about the upcoming Panera Bread and mentioned Sakegura Japanese restaurant, using a link to Urban Spoon so that people unfamiliar with Sakegura could find the place. For some reason Urban Spoon took that to be a review of Sakegura, even though I said nothing about the food. I feel I have to correct that mistake and will ask them to link to this article instead. We’ll see how that goes. Next, these reviews will be made from memory and largely without the use of photos. I suspect, though, that unless I do this, discussing food in Snellville will end up shot through with mistakes like the last one by Urban Spoon.

Sakegura Japanese Restaurant, is well located, found in the complex of strip malls at the corner of Ronald Reagan and Scenic Highway. It’s in a little strip with a few other stores, close to but not connected to the movie theater. Sakegura, as I recall, offered three kinds of dining. I recall tables in which to sit, a sushi bar, and hibachi style dining. My wife does not like the hibachi style at all, as the food choices are limited and steamed rice a must for her to be comfortable. Too many hibachi style places only serve fried rice.

Nonetheless, we went to this restaurant several times when we first moved into Snellville. The staff are not Japanese, but they work hard and do their best to please people. That’s one powerful memory of this place, how hard the manager worked. And it also has to be said I liked the sushi I had there. I also liked their boxed meals. We often would go for the “bento” boxes because those combinations of Japanese food were in general satisfying to us.

Sakegura Japanese
1905 Scenic Highway
Snellville, GA 30078
(770) 985-9168

Yakiniku Japanese Steakhouse, I believe I have been to once. I recall it to be largely a hibachi style restaurant. That means that knife skills are on display here, that people cut up meats and do little tricks such as flip shrimp into the mouths of patrons. The food focus is on simple things, such as grilled steaks and other meats, teriyaki steaks, tempura and so on. I don’t recall if you can get steamed rice here.

My most powerful memory of this place is an especially wry, funny waiter whose lessons on how to use chop sticks had me laughing inside. They had excellent staff that knew their audience and played well to their interests. The hibachi style restaurant is a gentle introduction to Japanese food and this place delivers in that context. However, it doesn’t offer the diversity of cuisine that would draw my wife, half Japanese, to be a regular here.

Yakinuku Japanese Steakhouse
4002 Highway 78
Snellville, GA 30039
(770) 736-1800

 

Some notes on the review of Japanese restaurants, and Nakato Japanese Restaurant, Atlanta GA

We’ll start with this quote from the online edition of Scientific American:

The CITES office in Geneva confirmed that Monaco has submitted a formal bid to add bluefin tuna to the Annex I list of threatened species and that the proposal will be part of the formal agenda at the next general conference in Doha, Qatar, in March 2010. An Annex I listing grants species the highest level of protection, allowing for the continuation of a domestic market but banning all imports or exports of animals and their parts on the list.

To give a recent quote from Taka, of Taka Sushi Atlanta, it’s just not that easy to find good tuna at all these days (see also here and here):

I don’t remember when was the last time that I got good tuna. I believed it was 3-4 weeks ago. This big eye tuna is the best of October.

My point being, of course, going into a restaurant and judging it primarily on the quality of its tuna sushi may be as gauche as judging a restaurant on its supply of chicken fried passenger pigeon. The best fish are becoming extinct, but because a thick red slice of tuna on sushi rice is one of the first nigiri an American learns to like, Americans tend to judge restaurants on what they are familar with.

The problem starts with a uniquely American attitude that sushi is the acme of Japanese cooking. I can’t adequately express how wrong that whole notion is. For one, making sushi is hardly cooking. For another, it’s not sushi that Japanese themselves serve to guests and use as a criterion for goodness. If Shizuo Tsuji is to be believed, it’s sashimi that they offer to guests, and use as a criterion for goodness. Again, referencing Tsuji, (Chapter 1, p 46), these are the components of an ordinary Japanese meal:

1. fresh, uncooked fish, or sashimi.
2. A grilled dish, or yakimono.
3. A simmered dish, or nimono.

Afterwards, the guest would be served miso soup, rice, and pickles (tsukemono). Consequently, I’m going to say something that should be common sense and hardly profound: if you write about food, and haven’t bothered to try a single entree in a full service Japanese restaurant, then you really haven’t bothered to review the restaurant, have you? You’ve just sat around and nibbled on the “cold cuts” and not bothered to find out how the restaurant actually cooks.

This comes into play when talking about a restaurant such as Nakato Japanese Restaurant. This is a restaurant trying to be all things to all people. It has a section that is a hibachi restaurant. It has a sushi bar. It also mentions on the front page of its website that it serves food “tapas style”, trying to also catch the heat of the ongoing izakaya craze.  But it’s only if you look hard that you can find out about their Garden Dining Room, with traditional Japanese foods, and only if you scroll down to the very bottom of their online “traditional” menu that you find what insiders think is the best part of Nakato, their nabemono, their one pot dishes.

That’s how I found out about Nakato, by entering into a conversation with someone who had done their Japanese tour of duty as an English teacher overseas, and then came back looking for authentic tastes. She found them, not at Nakato’s sushi bar, but in the Garden Room, and their hot pot dishes like sukiyaki and yosenabe.

What this also means is, from a reviewing standpoint, that reviewing Nakato is akin to defeating a three headed hydra. Almost no blogger has the time or budget to look into every single aspect of Nakato, unless they are a regular with exceptionally expansive tastes. Instead, bloggers tend to focus on what they know, and what they like. And for a lot of bloggers, what they really like about Japanese food is the sushi.

Now why is that? It’s because sushi is exotic, an unknown. Americans crave the mystery of sushi, and make more of it than it is. A fine grilled fish, by contrast, is far more ordinary, and easy to take for granted. So we see lots of reviews of ribbon sushi, and very little time spent on ordinary Japanese foods, the kind ordinary people eat.

To make it clear, Nakato’s menu is 7 pages long, full of appetizers and entrees, sushi, hibachi favorites and of course, the one pot dishes. I’ve been to Nakato twice. Both times I had nabemono. Once it was shabu-shabu, and perhaps yosenabe the second time. I was served on my table by a waitress in kimono. The food was cooked on the table and I was encouraged to add items to the pot myself. It was a rich experience, one that most restaurants in Atlanta cannot begin to handle. They don’t have the equipment. They don’t have the staff. They don’t have the patience. My wife, if I recall, had the tonkatsu. Yes, it was pretty darned good as well.

Verdict: Especially favored among “insiders” for their one pot dishes. Those dishes are Highly Recommended.

Nakato Japanese Restaurant
1776 Cheshire Bridge Road
Atlanta, GA 30324
(404) 873-6582

One final note from Taka’s web site: his recommendation for judging a sushi bar is to order and try its tamago. Did I mention his web site, Sushi and Passion, is just awesome? Many thanks to Foodie Buddha for making this site known to the Atlanta community.

 

The newest twist on banh mi

I’ve been following places to eat banh mi (see here, here, and here) and posts on banh mi for a while, but this latest from the New York Times did catch my eye. There is a new twist on this favorite, the banh mi doner kebab, half Turkish kebab, half Vietnamese sandwich.

Has anyone seen one in the greater Metro area yet?

 

Early November 2009 Food Notes – Sushi Nami and more

My family recently tried to go to Shoya Izakaya but it was too crowded for our tastes. So my family ended up at Sushi Nami. It was the first time my whole family had been there. Reaction to the restaurant was mixed. My wife was not fond of their yakisoba, but other dishes went over well. One I liked, though it was a little chewy, was this grilled squid. Other dishes of note were the agedashi tofu and what my daughter calls “baby octopus”.

 

 

The dish my mother-in-law wanted most though, was chawanmushi:

I’ve had at least two interesting replies in the past couple days, which would be easy to miss if all you read is my front page. The first to mention is Coko’s reply to the post about the first izakaya in Atlanta. Coko also remembers the izakaya behind Lenox and suggests Mr Hashiguchi used to own it. Zack Davission also replied to our mention of his blog. I’m thankful, because I find his posts quite interesting.

Sean P, of Take Thou Food, has started a cooking series using Antony Bourdain’s “Les Halles” cookbook. I’m really curious how his explorations will turn out, as well. And finally, kudos to Chloe Morris, as John Kessler has mentioned her finds in the Assi Food Court.

 

 

Ming’s Bar B Q, Duluth GA

Ming’s Bar B Q is a venerable and well respected institution, respected enough to have a devoted following among bloggers. The store in Duluth is just to the west and south of the Pleasant Hill – I-85 exit, which places it within 15-20 minutes of most people in Snellville. The outside is good looking and the inside of the new location is pretty, using a lot of black and natural wood colors. The staff of the Duluth location are largely fashionably dressed, usually in black.

I’ve been here (and at the Buford Highway location) about five times now, trying to figure out what I like and what I didn’t like. My epiphany came with the following dish, which I didn’t think I was ordering, but due to a smart waiter, I did..

BBQ Pork & Duck on Rice with Green Vegetables

This is “R6″, or “BBQ Pork & Duck on Rice with Green Vegetables”, a mix of duck and honey BBQ on rice, with vegetables. This is the dish that helped open my eyes to the possibilities of this restaurant. It’s more than enough meat, it gives you a taste of Ming’s steamed vegetables, and is very inexpensive. Some of the best dishes here cost less than $6.00.

We’ve been coming back to Mings in part because my mother-in-law took a fancy to Ming’s pan fried noodles. This is what she’s started getting, rain or shine. If you get it “to go”, the noodles come in one container and the chicken and vegetables will come in another. Our house has narrowed in on that as their staple. I’ve been tending more to duck over rice, since I know the rest of my family will never finish their noodles (by the way, the closest dish to Ming’s pan fried noodles I know of are the crispy noodles at What the Pho?).

Other dishes that I’ve tried include the chow fun with curry sauce, which was good and subtle in its spicing. The noodles I received were actually pretty dry. The dish had pork in it, as advertised in the menu, but also bits of egg, small shrimp, any number of little culinary surprises. There was a dry powdery spice on the noodles, and a very small amount of heat, and a very large amount of flavor.

It’s taken me days to get used to the enormous menu, so these are my suggestions if you’ve never been to Mings. The special side order are really their staple meats. Look at the meats and decide which ones you like. Try them in the rice plates. Choose a rice plate you think you’ll like. That’s the staple, the base here, from which you can expand and try things out. The reason I say this is the menu has well over 100 items, and that doesn’t count specials they may have on the walls, or on their whiteboard on entering.

If you make a ton of rice at home, I’ll note that Ming’s meats to go plus a lot of rice is becoming popular in our household. As far as the rest of the menu, it’s a bit like exploring a different kind of world. For example, one family member ordered chicken with broccoli. When I made the order at Ming’s, I was asked, “Chinese broccoli or crown broccoli?” I decided on the Chinese vegetable, which is tender and tasty and sweet, but also a little bitter at the same time. To be using “good” and “bitter” in the same sentence is new to me, but it’s very real and very true.

My take home is this is an inexpensive restaurant with room to explore. That said, I won’t recommend specific dishes. I’ll just say you should go, try things, find what you like. If you find your niche here, you’ll be rewarded with plenty of good, subtle, inexpensive food.

Verdict: Inexpensive place to get tasty meats and other Chinese delicacies. Terrific bang for the buck. Very Highly Recommended.

Mings BBQ has two locations

(Mall Corner Shopping Center)
2131 Pleasant Hill Road Suite #134
Duluth, GA 30096
(770) 623-9996

(in Asian Square, in the very back and far left if you’re facing Ranch Market)
5150 Buford Highway
Atlanta, GA 30340
(770) 451-6985

Final note: I know this restaurant has its own Internet troll. I will delete troll messages about this restaurant.

 

Coming Soon

This particular eatery has been under construction for months on Peachtree Dunwoody, and as they are hiring, I thought I’d post these two photos. They have a catering van, which I didn’t photograph. Perhaps I should. It was good looking.

I followed my daughter on Halloween (i.e. I held the umbrella) and tried to take photos. Only this one came out, of a house she visited.